


Flames

by HorseCrazyWriter76



Series: NaNoWriMo November 2019 [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Actor!Roman, Background Logicality - Freeform, Growing Up, I swear it makes sense in the universe, M/M, Pheonix!Roman, Prinxiety - Freeform, Techie!Virgil, not beta read or edited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 16:23:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21377029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HorseCrazyWriter76/pseuds/HorseCrazyWriter76
Summary: I've gone down in flames so many times before. How is this any different?Prompt: https://daily-prompts.tumblr.com/post/187212367446/prompt-1105
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders
Series: NaNoWriMo November 2019 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1541089
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Flames

He was tired. The newly-formed wings on his back still ached from the resurrection. Ash was caked in his hair and on his skin, which he knew was bright red underneath. It had been a good life. He had worked as a writer, and he had gotten to the level where he traveled around to book signings every so often. Those were the best times, seeing the new cities and greeting fans with their faces flushed with exhilaration. It was very close to how he felt when he got famous enough in a band to go touring around the world. Of course, this death was particularly difficult, he had only barely managed to get away from the hospital where he was receiving treatment for late-stage skin cancer when he felt the embers of resurrection fall to him.

He shook his head. He had to find a new name now, of course. He had gotten quite used to being called Prince, which he had used as his pen name. Perhaps he would use it as a last name. He pushed himself to his feet and glanced around, trying to get his bearings. He spotted the rotting log shaped like a dragon and nodded to himself, setting off in the opposite direction where there should be a river...there it was. He slowly submerged himself and watched the ash be swept downstream. He looked down at himself and realized with a start that he was a child. 

“Well, no choosing my last name then, huh?” he asked the sky. His squeaky voice felt strange to him. He flapped his wings and they folded away into thin air. He walked back along the path and pulled on the now-oversized pyjamas he had been wearing before. They weren’t actually terribly too big, but he had been quite short last time. Actually, he had been short for the past 3 lives. Perhaps this live. he would finally be able to see over the heads of people again.

He shook himself out of his musings for a second time and looked down at himself again, trying to judge how old he was.  _ Eight, maybe? No, older than that. Nine? Ten! That sounds right, I’m ten years old. Let’s see, my name is...hm, well I liked being Rose before, maybe something else starting with an R...Red, no, Robert, no, Roman! I am a 10-year-old named Roman. _

He marched out of the forest, ready to start his new life.

*****

“But I don’t want to go to school!” he protested as one of his new parents, Patton, told him the date for back to school night.

“Kiddo, you have to,” Patton gently replied.

“But I won’t know anyone.”

“Yes! Think about all the new friends you can make.”

“Why can’t I just skip to middle school where no one knows anyone?”

“Roman.”

“I know, I know.”

“And think about music and art class. That’s something to look forward to.”

“Alright. You won me over.”

“Great! You better get ready for bed now before Lolo realizes it’s your bedtime.”

“Good night, Dad.”

Roman hid his smile as Patton let out a high-pitched squeal.

*****

“Alright class, today since it’s the first day of school we’ll be doing a get-to-know-you Bingo! There are boards at each of your desks. What you’ll need to do is go around and get the name of a person for every square. You can only use a person’s name once, got it?” the teacher, Mr. Sander, announced to the class.

A varied chorus of agreement rang out around the classroom.

“Alright, who can tell me what we’re doing?”

A small forest of hands went up.

“Alright, in the red shirt, what’s your name?”

“I’m Roman.”

“Roman, what are we doing?”

“We’re playing Bingo, but we get someone’s name for each square and each name can only be used once.”

“Great job! Alright everyone, get up and start getting names.”

Roman immediately turned to the person on his left, a tall kid in a grey jacket.

“Hi! Do you...have two dogs?” he asked, scanning his sheet.

“No, but I was born in December.”

“Great! What’s your name?”

“Vee.”

“Alright, Vee.”

“Have you...performed on stage?”

“I have!”

“Roman, right?”

“Yup!”

“Chill.”

Roman set off to hunt down more names, but was stinted from his victory by the dastardly “loves eating salads” square. While he was trying to track down someone who liked eating that rabbit food, someone else swept up their final square and announced their victory. 

“What’s your name?”

“Remy.”

“Great job, Remy! Do you want a sticker?”

Roman watched enviously as Remy got a big, bright yellow sticker, which he promptly stuck on his nose, taunting his classmates who hadn’t been able to decipher who liked eating salad. Everyone returned to their seats, and Roman looked over to see Vee holding back a tiny bit of laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry, you just look so mad you didn’t win a stupid icebreaker game.”

“I was one square away! Stupid salad,” he pouted, and Vee let out a tiny laugh, clear and bell-like. 

“Harmony. She adores salad.”

“I put her down as being able to whistle! Stupid Harmony.”

Vee laughed again, then they had to quiet down as Mr. Sanders started the class.

*****

“Vee! Hey, look, the audition things are up.”

“You are so not making me audition.”

“Come on! You were great in Chitty.”

“Like being a car is a great signifier of acting talent. Absolutely not.”

“What about as a techie? They need techs, too.”

“A tech, that would be cool.”

“See! There you go, I’ll be an actor, and you’ll be a tech! It’s perfect.”

“I never agreed!”

“Come on, it’ll be fun. I’ll convince Harmony to try out, too.”

“Oh god, I’d love to see that. Alright, I’m in,” Vee fist-bumped Roman and picked up the tech interview form. Roman gave a wide smile and picked up two audition forms. 

“I got the new Kingdom Hearts game.”

“Nerd. I’ll be over at 7; I have an English project due on Monday.”

“Already? It’s only the first week of school!”

“Blame Mx. Stokes.”

“Mx?”

“Yeah, they’re non-binary. That gives them no excuse to go handing out projects on the first week of school, though.”

“What’s it over?”

“Your life story.”

“ _ My  _ life story? I’m already getting fans? Tell them I’m honored!”

“Roman! You know that’s not what I meant,” Vee snorted, elbowing Roman as they pushed open the doors into the parking lot.

“See you at 7, My Chemically Imbalanced Romance.”

“See ya, Princey.”

*****

“What’s up, Roman?” Remy asked, tapping Roman’s nose in greeting.

“Nothing, nothing.”

“It’s never nothing when you say nothing,” xe laughed, hip bumping him, “Spill all the tea and I’ll get you tea.”

“Do you think Vee likes me?”

“Honey. Honey. You’ve had to hots for each other since 7th grade.”

“Wha-no way!”

“Yes way. When are you asking him out?”

“Today. We’re doing a group project in science and he’s coming to my house to work on it. I got tickets to a Twenty One Pilots concert and I was planning on asking him.”

“Girl, go for it! No, what you have to do is get down on your knee like you’re proposing and offer up the tickets!”

“Remy, no, no, no, you’re being too tame. I’m going to blindfold him and lead him to my room, get on my knees in front of a big banner asking him to date me, tell him to take off the blindfold, then present the tickets.”

“Roman! You’re a genius, but how are you going to get Vee to getting blindfolded?”

“I think I’ll go back to just showing him the tickets and asking him.”

“Come on, you can at least serenade him! You didn’t get the nickname Sir-Sings-A-Lot for nothing!”

“Great idea. Oo, what song?”

“Well, did TØP write any love songs?”

“Mm, My Blood?”

“Perfect! Now go get yourself an emo boyfriend.”

“Now, about that tea.”

“Uh-uh, ask him out first, then we all meet at Starbies on Saturday to celebrate, capiche?”

“Capiche.”

*****

Vee and Roman lounged on the couch.

“Have I ever told you my name?”

“Vee.”

“No, like, my actual name.”

“Your name isn’t Vee?”

“Well, that’s what I like to be called, but not really, no.”

“Then what is your name?” Roman asked, resting his head on his hands.

“You promise you won’t laugh?”

“I promise.”

“Virgil.”

“Like the poet?”

“Yeah.”

“Roman with his roman poet,” Roman smiled, dropping a tiny kiss into the messy crown of chocolate-brown hair.

“Shut up, Princey,” Virgil protested, laughter shaking the severity of the statement.

“Make me,” Roman smiled, and Virgil took the bait, rising up to connect their lips in a chaste kiss, smiles on both of their faces.

*****

“Hey, Virgil, have I ever shown you my wings?” Roman asked as they walked along a forested path. They were both a year out of college and were having decent luck becoming fully functioning adults, although Virgil insisted on wanting to get out of what he called a hell-state(“I’m 23, and I’ve never seen snow on Christmas. Like, how messed up is that? I just want one year where I see snow on both my birthday and Christmas. Is that so much to ask for, universe?”).

“No?”

Roman slowly pulled off his shirt, careful not to make it weird that he wasn’t opening his right hand, where he was palming a small black box. He blinked and glittering gold wings appeared out of thin air. He smiled at Virgil’s awe-struck expression, then slowly got on his knees.

“Virgil, I am a magical being known as the phoenix, reborn from the ashes every time my mortal form dies. In all my lives I have never been happier than at your side. At concerts, playing a video game, or even just watching a movie and cuddling, you make me happy, and I never want to leave your side. Marry me?”

Virgil opened his mouth, once, twice, then managed to get the words out, “One, you’re a phoenix and you never told me? Two, that is some cheesy stuff right there. Three, yes!” Virgil gently took the ring and pressed it onto his ring finger.

“One, it’s hard to tell people. Two, that is some  _ romantic  _ stuff right there. Three,” Roman stood up and gently dropped a kiss onto Virgil’s lips, his wings glowing a little bit brighter before folding away into thin air.

*****

Roman woke slowly from his sleep to a fire alarm going off somewhere. He gently shook Virgil awake.

“5 more minutes,” his husband grumbled, fumbling around for his phone to turn off the alarm.

“Virgil! Something’s burning.”

“What?” Virgil clearly snapped awake, grabbed his phone and Roman’s hand in that order and half dragged him down the stairs, where they could see the flames hunting around in the kitchen, where the sprinkler had broken two weeks ago and they still hadn’t managed to get around to fixing it.

“Dante and Greece!” Virgil suddenly cried. Roman felt a chill go down his spine as he remembered their two new dogs, still in their crates in the flame-filled kitchen. They either hadn’t been barking or their barking was drowned out by the smoke alarm. Roman desperately hoped it was the latter.

“Call the fire department, I’ll get them!” Roman called back, running to the door.

“I’m not good on the phone! Let me get them!” Roman barely heard Virgil as he raced back through to the kitchen. The fire was building, and he crouched low, squinting and coughing as the smoke irritated his eyes and lungs. He found the crates and undid the latch, scooping out the dogs. He ran for the entrance, stumbled, fell to his knees, dropped the dogs, who made a beeline for the open door. He coughed, trying to get a breath of fresh air at the lowest level, but the fire had found something that was producing too much smoke. Then he felt embers land on his foot.

He screamed. He didn’t know why. He had died so many times before. He had gone down in flames so many times before. The flames didn’t even hurt as they tore into his pant leg and curdled his skin. Why was he scared and screaming now?

He knew why.

It was Virgil.

And Greece.

And Dante.

And Logan.

And Patton.

It was all the people he had loved that life-time. It hurt to let go of fans, but a million admirers wasn’t the same as three people who knew and loved you. It was because he was revived as a 10-year-old named Roman, and he had a brief childhood, a full adolescence, and the start of an adult life. It was because he had a family. It was because he had a wonderful husband and two wonderful dogs and two wonderful dads.

“Maybe I’ll call myself Dante Greece next,” he coughed as the fire reached up his legs, seemed to pause, then raced on, sending him on to the next life.


End file.
